1. Think of notes as pieces of understanding

"It is hard to choose the "best tip" but one I have been saying a lot lately to researchers is to see notes not as "pieces of truth" but as "pieces of understanding". So as our understanding grows and consolidates, our notes grow and consolidate with it."
‍Bianca Pereira-Researcher

When working on research for whatever assignment, project or work you are performing, taking notes is crucial to succeed. Now, the question is what should be inside these notes? Are they complete or good?

Researcher Bianca Pereira says: “We tend to think about notes as pieces of truth. notes need to contain only the ultimate and complete truth. If that is not the case, we believe that these notes shouldn’t exist. The challenge is that we always need to read more, think more, experiment more in order to feel confident enough that what we are writing is actually THE truth (if such a thing exists)”.

Pereira points out that as a consequence notes are unfamiliar and when it is time to talk about what we understand from them, we need to rely on memory mapping which in most cases fails. 

She urges us to start thinking about notes as “pieces of understanding”.

“As we capture our understanding as it is happening, our notes will start as poor and small seedlings. If the content of a note is still “not good enough” is because our understanding of the field is still developing. As we continue learning, we update the content of our notes to reflect our developed understanding of the topic. The consequence is that our notes give a direct feedback of our understanding of a topic. The better the text, the more confident we feel about the knowledge in the note”. (Pereira, 2022)

https://twitter.com/BiaResearcher/status/1492488779512401926

2. Taking notes is the medium in which thinking takes place

Capture the thought, expand, annotate, connect later. Writing does not begin when we sit down to put one paragraph after another on the screen or page. It begins much, much earlier, as we take notes on the articles or books we read, the podcasts or audiobooks we listen to, and the interesting conversations and life experiences we have. 

These notes build up as a byproduct of the reading we are already doing anyway. Even if you do not aim to develop a grand theory, you need a way to organize your thoughts and keep track of the information you consume. 

Assistant Professor in Computer Science & Technology and PhD candidate, Jakob Barnard highlights the importance of capturing the thought quickly in your notes before it gets lost. He suggests that taking this first step fast and as simple as possible is key. At this point you should not get delayed by extra annotations or connections. Later when you go over your notes, expanding the stated ideas with details and relations becomes much easier. This exercise undoubtedly will help you develop your understanding of that particular subject.

3. Stick to your own system and the 5 R’s of note taking

The way we take our notes influences how well we learn. A good note-taking technique is one that helps us remember, retain, and recall important information and, to a certain extent, contribute to the building of knowledge.

Summarizing, highlighting, and creating mind maps are just a few of the most popular methods. In the last few years, there has been a frenzy to look for “the best note-taking techniques“ or “the most effective note-taking system“. However, Ali Abdaal, productivity expert and influencer, points out that if you have already found a technique that works for you, there is little point in changing things.

Abdaal says that regardless of your preferred method, a good note taking technique should have some easily identifiable characteristics. These characteristics are known as the 5 R’s of note taking (The 5 Rs of Note Taking, n.d.):

• Record – there should be somewhere to take our notes (obviously).

• Reduce – there should be somewhere to summarize those notes.

• Recite – there needs to be an easy way to test ourselves using our notes.

• Reflect – our notes should be related to other notes we’ve already written.

• Review – we should regularly revisit our notes to ensure maximum retention.